KPFA Local Station Board

KPFA Evening News Anchor Cameron Jones: KPFA Local Station Board Election Supervisor Aharon Morris announced today that enough ballots have been received to make quorum and thus guarantee that all seats being vacated by outgoing members will be filled by new representatives from both the KPFA listener community and the KPFA staff. Morris also said that he will be at KPFA from 5:00 to 7:30 pm Sunday night to accept last minute ballots and make sure they get to the East Coast by Tuesday. KPFA's Ann Garrison spoke to KPFA Election Supervisor Aharon Morris.

KPFA/Ann Garrison: Aharon, can you explain why you'll be at KPFA tomorrow evening, from 5:00 to 7:30 pm to collect late ballots?

Aharon Morris: Yes, absolutely. So this year at Pacifica we're doing things a little differently. In the past you've been able to drop off your ballot the night before the tally's due. However, all of these ballots need to be in New York by December 11th. So, there's a lot of people who received their ballots late, they didn't have them completed, and also, the forums here were conducted a little late. So, in the interest of fairness and giving everybody the chance to vote, I will be at the station collecting those ballots, so that I can collect them on the 9th and send them out overnight, so they can get into New York by the 11th.

KPFA: And, there will also be a ballot gathering outside the station up until 11, to gather ballots, for express mail, but that will not be an official KPFA ballot gathering, right?

Aharon Morris: No, that will not be an official ballot gathering, while I do trust that they'll do things, you know, professionally. I'm not going to be there to oversee the process. I believe that's been organized by a particular group, and thus it is not sponsored by me or the station.

KPFA: However, since the Sit/Lie did not pass in Berkeley, anybody's entitled to gather on the street and do whatever they want, right?

Aharon Morris: You're right, I don't have any jurisdiction on the streets of Berkeley, at all.

KPFA: OK, Aharon Morris, thank you and thank you for all the work you've done to make this election a success.

(Note: The official ballot gathering will be inside the station, from 5 to 7:30 pm at KPFA, 1979 Martin Luther King Way, Berkeley. The campaign team for the United for Community Radio-Support KPFA slate of candidates organized the unofficial ballot gathering reported here, which will continue outside the station, also at 1979 Martin Luther King Way, between 7 and 11 pm. After broadcast of the Saturday Evening News, I received news that the campaign team for the Save KPFA slate of candidates will also hold an unofficial ballot gathering at Au Coquelet, at 2000 University Avenue, Berkeley, several blocks away from KPFA.

Anyone who hasn't yet mailed their ballot can of course express mail it to the return address in New York at their own expense, but these gatherings are meant to avert that cost and make it as easy as possible for everyone to vote.)

KPFA Evening News Anchor Cameron Jones: The KPFA Local Station Board election is now in its final days by mail. Ballots must be received at the address on the return envelopes by December 11th to be counted. KPFA's Ann Garrison spoke to the Pacifica National Elections Supervisor about the Single Transferable Voting system variant of Ranked Choice Voting that will be used to determine the results.

KPFA/Ann Garrison: Ranked Choice Voting is intended to give the greatest number of people in an electorate some say in the election of a single representative. In San Francisco and Oakland’s Ranked Choice Voting elections, votes may go to their second or third choices after their first choice has been eliminated. Single Transferable Voting, the multiple seat variant of Ranked Choice Voting that is used in the KPFA Local Station Board elections, is intended to create proportional representation of KPFA’s listener community on a board of 25 members.

Terry Bouricius: Pacifica is not alone in using STV. It was actually invented back in the 1800s, has been used for government elections in Australia since the 1800s. Many cities in the United States use STV: New York City, Cleveland, a lot of places. Cambridge Massachusetts still uses it today for their city council, and Minneapolis used it for some minor offices. Its got a long history and is used in a lot of countries. . . Ireland, other places around the world. A lot of people are familiar with voting systems that, when there's many seats, that they vote for as many people as they want, the person who gets the most votes wins one of the seats. The next top vote getter gets the next seat and so on. The problem with that system is a group that is the largest group in an electorate can win every single seat, and while in some sense that might be considered democratic, what it means is that substantial minority groups are completely shut out and get no representation on the Board. Having proportional representation assures that the final mix of winners will be proportionate and reflect the diversity of the electorate.

KPFA: That was Pacifica National Elections Supervisor Terry Bouricius. Once again, ballots in the KPFA Local Station Board election must be received, at the address on the return envelopes, by December 11th to be counted.